2014 TC Bear Bobbleheads

Back in 2014, the Minnesota Twins hosted MLB's All Star Game.  It was a week long party and plenty of stuff for fans to enjoy and see.  Of course there were bobbleheads.  3 mini bobbleheads were given away on 3 different mornings at Fanfest.  Joe Mauer, Tony Oliva and TC Bear.  TC was only given to kids under 13 (maybe 14) and they were pretty strict about that.  1000 bobbles of each were produced.  Mauer and Oliva were gone within 20-30 minutes of Fanfest opening.  There were plenty of TC's leftover.  And the TCs you found on eBay sold pretty quickly.  Ultimately the Twins sold the rest of them at Twinsfest a couple years later.  

What is unknown, by many collectors is the full version of TC that was sold during All Star Week.  These bobbleheads weren't numbered but I have a feeling that less than 300 were produced, most likely either 144 or 288.  I never saw one that week and I went to a few different events, including the ASG itself (thanks to one of my best friends, Matt).  

I've meant to show the difference of these 2 bobbles for a while.  As I know several people are looking for the full version and usually the mini version comes up.  So here is a picture showing both!  As you can see they are quite similar, for the most part, the same pose, but a different base and obviously different height.  The full version is definitely one of the harder to find TC Bear bobbleheads!  

2014 Spring/Summer Finds #2

Number 2 on my 2014 Spring/Summer Finds list is a moving sale I found earlier this summer.  The gentleman that was moving, was truly getting rid of everything.  He wasn't necessarily a collector but had lots and lots of bobbleheads as well as a ton of other sports memorabilia.  We had emailed a couple times and he told me the names of guys he had.  I knew he had some good bobbleheads, but wasn't sure just how good they were.  When names like Puckett, Hrbek and Killebrew get thrown out there, I'm sure everyone hopes for the first year bobbleheads.  But we all know that each player has several bobbleheads and really the first year (both SGA and STH) are the ones worth good money.  

Knowing he wanted to move them, I was intrigued, so I went to the sale and bought several bobbleheads.  I had a great time chatting with him and learning more about his "collection" even tho he repeatedly said he wasn't really a collector.  

I came away with about 14 bobbleheads.  Below is a picture of the best set.  

That's right, Kirby Puckett, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek and Harmon Killebrew.  On top of those 4, I also picked up a couple of the 1965 Ecumen bobbleheads and a complete set of the 2001 SGA set that includes Kirby Puckett, Rod Carew, Bert Blyleven and Dave Winfield!  Sometimes its better to be lucky than good.  On that summer day, I was 100% lucky.  

Minnesota Twins - 1st Edition SGAs vs 1st Edition STHs

I've had several people ask me about the difference between SGAs and STHs.  For the most part its super easy to tell, green base bobbleheads are the giveaways while red base bobbleheads were given to season ticket holders.  However, one major hurdle is the 1st Edition of each set, as they both had green bases.

Harmon Killebrew, Kent Hrbek, Tony Oliva and Kirby Puckett make up each set.  The SGA set was given out in 2000 while the STH set was given out the following year.  There are a couple great features with both sets.  This is by far the best quality set the Twins did, both in terms of the quality of the bobblehead specifically as well as the uniqueness of each one.  Each player has different jerseys (where as most of the more recent sets - the same jerseys appear with the only difference being a red base vs. a green base).

The hard thing is remembering the exact jersey of each player to tell if its a SGA or STH.  There is a much easier way to tell the difference of each.  The base of the SGA says "Mountain Dew" (they sponsored the set) while the base of the STH says the last name of each player. THAT is the best way to tell which edition of bobblehead you are viewing.  Below is a comparison picture, on the top is the SGA set while the STH set on the bottom.

2014 All Star Game & More

I'm guessing anyone who reads my blog probably knows the All Star game was held at Target Field last week.  Leading up to it, MLB had plenty of events, one was something they call "Fanfest."  In June I blogged about the 3 mini bobbleheads that were being given away at Fanfest - TC Bear, Tony Oliva and Joe Mauer. Jess and I went down to Fanfest last Sunday.  A buddy of mine had some extra tickets so we checked it out. It was pretty cool but also fairly overwhelming.  However, lets be real - we probably went on the worst day possible, Sunday early afternoon.  There were tons of people but also so much cool stuff to see.  I kinda thought the "Collectors Showcase" would be just as big (if not bigger) than Twinsfest.  Unfortunately that wasn't the case at all as there was only a handful of dealers.

However, with TC being given away to kids on Friday, I knew that would be the hardest bobblehead of the 3 to get.  I noticed a listing on eBay early on Friday morning and I thought it was a very good and fair deal, so I bought the TC bobblehead.  Of course this meant I was committed to getting the other 2 bobbleheads. Once I receive all 3 of them, I'll update this posting with a picture.  They are cool mini bobbleheads, but as is the case with most any mini bobblehead - they aren't very sturdy and quite fragile at times!  The TC Bear bobblehead routinely goes for between $40 and $50 on eBay while Tony Oliva and Joe Mauer are going for quite a bit less.  If you are looking for the set...TC will be the hardest and/or the most spendy of the bunch. Good luck!

Update: Here's the picture of the 3 bobbleheads.  They are pretty tiny!

1965 Heroes Ecumen SGA Set

Recently I was able to complete the SGA Ecumen set.  I've blogged previously about this set and one extremely similar.  Check out those blogs at the following links.

1965 Heroes Katrina Set
Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 6 - Year 2005)
Twinsfest = Success
1965 Heroes vs. 1965 Katrina
Minnesota Twins Bobblehead Sets (Part 1 of 4)

I feel this set is the hardest set to complete of any Twins bobbleheads.  August 21st, 2005 was a giveaway day.  Similar to all other giveaway days, the Twins were giving away 10,000 bobbleheads.  However, they changed it up for this day by giving away 1000 bobbleheads of 10 different players from the 1965 team. Included in the set were, Zoilo Versalles, Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison, Tony Oliva, Earl Battey, Frank Quilici, Camilo Pascual, Jim Perry, Jim "Mudcat" Grant, and Jim Kaat.  Even if you had 10 tickets you weren't guaranteed of getting all 10 bobbleheads.  I know of several people who had 20-25 tickets and came away with 6 or 7 different bobbleheads, but not all 10.  

When my passion for this crazy collection started I figured the "1965 Heroes Ecumen" set might never get completed and I was ok with that.  I actually passed up a few of these early on because I didn't plan on trying to collect the entire set (as many of these go for over $100 each on eBay) and although Jess is an amazing wife...getting her to "be cool" with me spending a grand on 10 bobbleheads wasn't going to happen! 

I got a couple of these for super cheap at garage sales, then I got 6 more at Twinsfest 2014 and once that happened I knew I'd be able to complete the set in time.  I honestly didn't think it'd happen in 2014.  I kinda figured over several years I'd find deals on them and eventually have the complete set.  Of course the one I couldn't find was the most expensive of them all...Harmon Killebrew - no introduction necessary.  

Luckily a few weeks ago I found this one to complete the set.  Below is a picture, front and back of the set.

And here's a comparison of the front of the 1965 Ecumen set vs the Katrina set.  

2014 All-Star Game Fanfest

I've been meaning to post about Fanfest for a while.  If you don't know much about Fanfest, just click the link or there is lots of info at mlb.com!  I'm blogging about this for a couple reasons.  First there will be a huge collectors show.  My hunch is this will be bigger than Twinsfest as there will be plenty of national dealers as well as local ones selling all sorts of sports memorabilia.  Right now, I don't have tickets yet, but am really hoping to get down there, just hard because of my work schedule right now!

Secondly, there are 3 bobblehead giveaways.  I'm not sure if I'll look for these or not.  They aren't true SGAs and I don't even think they are given away from the Twins persay (guessing its more of a MLB giveaway with a Twins theme because its in Minnesota).  There are 3 mini bobbleheads, TC Bear, Tony Oliva, and of course Joe Mauer.  Cool but at this time, not a necessity of mine.

Reply to this post if you are going and what you are looking forward to.  After the ASG I'll write another blog about the ASG events and if I was able to make it to Fanfest or not.  Looking to get your Fanfest experiences too!

One last thing, here's a brochure I found on the Fanfest website.

Minnesota Twins ST Bobblehead Set (Part 6 - Year 2006)

The 2006 ST set is probably my favorite.  It includes 4 players from the 65 Heroes set.  Earl Battey, Tony Oliva, Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison.  It's a really good looking set, part of the reason I like this set so much are the uniforms.  This set is also unique because the full 2006 ST set is actually 5 bobbleheads, but the 5th, Zoilo Versalles wasn't part of the 4 bobblehead set.  The only ticket holders that got him were the ones who purchased a specific season ticket plan and seats. Because of that, the entire 5 bobblehead set is very tough to put together.  I recently added the Versalles bobblehead to my collection.

Below I've uploaded the comparison picture of the 2006 ST set and the 2005 SGA set.  You'll notice that I only have 3 of the SGA bobbleheads because the other is the group of 10 1965 Heroes bobbleheads, which I'll blog about at a later date!

Minnesota Twins ST Bobblehead Set (Part 1 - Year 2001)

In March I did a 13 part series on each SGA bobblehead by year.  I'm doing another series showing the season ticket holder bobbleheads from every year.  These bobbleheads are given to full and partial season ticket holders.  Partial season ticket holders would only get 1 or 2 of these bobbleheads while full season ticket holders could get the entire set.

2001 is the first year the Twins gave season ticket holders a set of bobbleheads.  As you can see there isn't much difference in the 4 bobbleheads when compared to the 2000 SGA bobbleheads!  Harmon Killebrew, Kent Hrbek, Tony Oliva and Kirby Puckett make up the set of 4 bobbleheads.  Much like its 2000 SGA sibling set, this is one of the hardest ST sets to complete!  Why you ask?  Mainly because of the Hrbek and Killebrew bobbleheads (just like the SGAs!).

Below is a comparison of the SGA and ST sets.  You can see each bobblehead is almost the same with the main differences being a uniform change.  Also, the easiest way to tell if any of these 4 bobbleheads are ST or SGA...ST have the players last name on the front of the base.

Minnesota Twins SGA Bobblehead Set (Part 1 - Year 2000)

The set that started the bobblehead craze in Minnesota.  To this day, its still the toughest Twins SGA set to complete.  Harmon Killebrew, Kent Hrbek, Tony Oliva, and Kirby Puckett.  Only 5,000 bobbleheads were made for Killebrew and Hrbek, while they upped that amount to 10,000 for Oliva and Puckett.  Theoretically that means there are only 5000 complete sets out there.  This is always why the Killebrew and Hrbek bobbleheads are more spendy that Oliva or Puckett.